Yellow Paint

Chapter 2

Morning rolled around and my mother came to wake me up after around one or two hours of light sleep.

She told me softly, running her hand through my hair: "Happy Christmas, Jack. There's a nice breakfast waiting for you downstairs and you can come whenever you're ready."

I nodded. I didn't really want to go down, but I kind of had to since it was Christmas and my family would be disappointed if I didn't show my face all day. I couldn't disappoint them.

I lazily got out of bed, put the Christmas sweater my mother bought me about two weeks ago so I could wear it on this day and kept my sweat pants on because I didn't feel the need to change. I got down stairs to the kitchen where I found my family already eating and a plate of food waiting for me. There were pancakes, bacon, eggs and toast on the special dining wear my parents had since their first Christmas together.

"Hey, Jack-o. Merry Christmas," said my father as I sat down. He called me that when I was a child, then stopped for a few years, then started again about a year ago. I don't know why, but I won't ask him because it's not a need for me to know. I don't exactly like it, but I don't hate it either. It's okay, I guess. Better than 'Jack-ass', as my sister calls me.

I nodded in his direction to let him know I understood and sent back the saying. I started to eat slowly, but my stomach didn't want to take in a lot, so I just ate one toast, half a pancake and the bacon. The one who cooked this meal forgot I preferred my eggs completely cooked and left it leaky, so I didn't eat that. But I won't throw a fit just because my eggs aren't cooked the way I wanted. I didn't want to eat them anyway.

While I was staring at the rest of my food, my family was talking about how it was sad that Jonas, my sister's fiancé, couldn't be here because he had work in another country. I was half-listening because I more concentrating on the snow falling lightly outside because it was more interesting than Jonas not being here. I didn't like him; he was too professional and had the voice of the host of an infomercial.

"Come on, Jack," said my mother. "Let's go open the presents before the rest of the family arrives."

Our family was made of 6 of my cousins, 3 aunts and 2 uncles. I only knew the family on my father's side because my mother didn't talk to her family anymore because they had a huge fight before my sister was born.

I nodded and made my way to the living room, following my family in. I sat on the couch and my mother said: "Jack, why don't you distribute the presents?"

I nodded, getting to the floor to look at the name tags on the gifts. Most of them were for the rest of the family, like cousins and stuff, but my sister still got two presents, my father got three and my mother also.

I kept my presents for last to be polite, even if I knew I didn't need to be polite around my family. I opened the first present and it had a few shirts of bands I liked from my sister. I then open a pierced box from my parents to find a black cat. I wasn't a surprise since I heard him meow when I started to give out the presents.

I looked at my parents and smiled. I really did want company when I was in my room without the company talking all the time and being disturbing.

I lifted the cat up to see the sex. A female.

"Do you like her, Jack?" asked my mother.

I nodded excitedly. What I liked about the cat was that she wasn't all black because her left ear was white and only her left ear.

"At the pound, they said she was abandoned in an apartment. They called her Pheobe. You know, like the Titan," she said.

My smile got wider. I liked Pheobe, it was a nice name. Plus, I also liked Greek mythology which was a nice touch.

The doorbell rang. It was probably my aunt Matilda her husband and their two children. My family got up, leaving me with Pheobe. I heard the door open and some 'Hello's and 'How are you's being exchanged. Then the company came into the house, took off their coats and shoes and came into the room where I was at.

"Oh, hello, Jack," said Matilda. I waved at her, holding the cat close. I knew she was rough with animals. Not that she beats them or anything, it's quite the opposite of that, really. She loves them too much for their own good.

"Oh, and who is this?" she asked.

"That's Pheobe. She was one of Jack's presents this year," said my mother.

"Oh, how cute! I absolutely love the white on her ear," she said. As you may or may not have noticed, aunt Matilda likes to start all her sentences with 'oh's. She's always done that, to my knowledge.

My cousins Josh and Kelly came in bearing presents for the rest of the family. Josh was 10 and Kelly was 13. Then came my uncle Jeremy (or aunt Matilda's husband) with some food for the Christmas party. He was super muscly and super tall, like 6'4".

"Hey, Jack," he said in his deep voice. "Are you still training to get these kind of muscles?" he showed off his arms.

I shook my head. I had accepted to train myself with him, but every time he called to come exercise with me, I told my mom to say to him I already had that day, but it was obviously a lie. I hated exercise and I hated PE and I hated just to move in general.

"Aw, that's a shame. I just learnt some new training exercises and they work really well to get you toned," he said. But the problem is that I liked my skinny arms. I didn't think toned arms would fit me. It would be weird to me and everyone else, except Jeremy apparently.

"Jack, why don't you go put some pants on?" asked my father. I nodded, but still not understanding why the sweats I was wearing wasn't good enough for him. I wasn't going to a dress up party. I got up from the floor, taking Pheobe with me.

I got to my room and changed into black skinny jeans, which weren't that skinny since they bagged a little everywhere since I was so skinny. I left my new little kitten in my room and closed the door because I didn't want her to get out of the house and get lost when the whole family came in.

I went downstairs again to see that my aunt Rose had arrived.

"Hello, Jack," she said, embracing me in a hug. She was a rich widow with no children, so she liked to come here sometimes and also visit her two sisters and her half-brother. "How are you?"

I shrugged and smiled slightly. She smiled back and patted my shoulder lightly a few times. "Good boy. Well, I got to go put these presents under the tree," she said, motioning at the bags and boxes at her feet. "Will you help me?"

I nodded and took the boxes to let the easier things to carry for her. She was way older than my father, like maybe 16 years apart from my father. He was the youngest.

I put the four boxes next to the tree and she placed the bags a little further because the presents where piling up a lot.

I turned back to the rest of the people in the room and I just felt a wave of fatigue wash over me. I sat on floor besides the couches because there already weren't any places left on them. I leant my head on the soft leather and closed my eyes.

I let the needed sleep take place in me.